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Two Worlds: Communism and Western Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2017

Alfred G. Meyer
Alfred G. Meyer*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
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Extract

The stated purpose of the encyclopedia being reviewed here, Marxism, Communism and Western Society: A Comparative Encyclopedia is to present a comprehensive comparative portrait of two worlds, one called “Communism,“ the other, “Western Society,” including their institutions and self-images, the images they have of each other, and their entire views of the cosmos; the range of topics covered is extremely wide. Several aims might be fulfilled by such a work. One of them is to serve as a reference book for students of Marxism and Communist societies, especially the Soviet Union, and not for specialists only but also for anyone interested in selected aspects of these topics. On the whole, the Encyclopedia serves this purpose very well. The relevant articles tend to be competent and thorough, even though I can understand why one of the anonymous referees of this essay found them “tinged with Germanic pedantry, dry and often verbose, with a penchant for abstraction, reifications, and fine distinctions.“

Type
Review Article
Information
Slavic Review , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , September 1977 , pp. 475 - 487
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. 1977

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References

1. Marxism, Communism and Western Society : A Comparative Encyclopedia, vols. 1-8, ed. C. D. Kernig (New York : Herder and Herder, 1972). Vol. 1 : xxvi, 436 pp. Vol. 2 : viii, 459 pp. Vol. 3 : viii, 388 pp. Vol. 4 : viii, 448 pp. Vol. 5 : viii, 484 pp. Vol. 6 : viii, 470 pp. Vol. 7 : viii, 478 pp. Vol. 8 : xxxiv, 413 pp.

2. The author of this review article was asked to write two contributions for the Encyclopedia. One of these articles, “Authority” (vol. 1, pp. 229-37), was printed; the other, “Democracy, ” was not, although the editors never troubled to communicate this to the author or to explain their reasons for rejecting it. I relate this in order to show my prior involvement with the work I am reviewing here.